Page 149 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“How is it fair?” Ferrin demanded through his shield. “How is itrightthat four Magicians decided to cut us all off from our homes, and now Keldori haseverything?Think of what I could accomplish, with your technology and my power! And you could’ve helped me!”
I turned my hands to steel and pressed against his shield. It was hot to the touch, but I pushed harder, forcing Ferrin to stagger backwards towards the wide window.
“You told me you didn’t want Orla to see you become the person you’d been when you killed the Grimguards,” I seethed, “but now you’re talking about killing Orla!”
“Then I’ll kill her first so she doesn’t see what comes next.”
The shield burst beneath my hands, and I pushed through the shards as they dissolved into sparks in the air. Ferrin was ready with a sword, but I batted it away with the silver flail that formed in my hand.
“You can’t kill Orla! YouloveOrla!” Some part of my mind still rebelled against the idea that this could be Ferrin. Ferrin was kind. Ferrin wasgood.
“And I loved her mother, but I still did what I had to when she got in my way.” He held his free hand over the twisted scar I knew was hiding under his tunic. “She almost got me first.”
The story he’d told me about his sister’s death had been so horrible and so tragic. Somehow, this cruel truth was so much worse.
“The Grimguards don’t want the Frozen God freed at all, do they?” Everything had been a lie. But then how had Galahad not known? “They were trying to save Oren, not kill him. And Fana’s family—”
Ferrin gave an apologetic shrug.
“The Firelds were miserable hiding in their castle. What we did was a mercy,” he assured me.
“You murdered them! And then you blamed the Grimguards!”
“Caitria and I didn’t mean to be mistaken for the Frozen God’s servants, but those optics worked for us. We left Fana alive, figuring she’d be the easiest to bring to the Bay of Teeth, and I returned home to kill Oren. But while I was gone, Galahad took it upon himself to go to Cape Fireld and take charge over Fana. It took years before therealGrimguards showed up, giving us the excuse we needed to move Fana north.”
I thought back to every conversation I’d had with Ciarán. He’d never once actually said he was going to kill Fana, just that he was going to get to her.
“Ciarán wasn’t hunting us. He was trying to save Fana. Fromyou.”
“Ciarán?” Ferrin barked a disbelieving laugh that brought the corners of his neat beard upwards. “Are you on a first name basis with the Grimguard, then?”
“You spared him in Vanderfall because you didn’t want Orla thinking less of you!” My voice rose, but I couldn’t help it. Panic and anger were in control, not me. “What happened tothatFerrin? The Ferrin who loves his niece, who has mercy, and is kind?”
“Kindness and mercy had nothing to do with me sparing the Grimguard. How wasn’t that your first iota of a hint that maybe there was something else going on? Wren, you’re smarter than that. In what reality would I have let the Grimguard live if he was trying to kill us?”
Heat burned in my cheeks, and I hated the shame that rose in my gut at having disappointed Ferrin. I couldn’t help it. Part of me was still hoping that as horribly real as everything about Skalterra was, this would be the bit that turned out to be a dream.
“Then why?” My voice shook with rage and disgust.
“I needed a villain,” Ferrin said simply. “If the Grimguard died, Galahad would’ve brought us straight back to Cape Fireld. Not only would that have set back my timeline, but it’s unlikely I would’ve discovered Orla’s secret heritage. So thank you, Wren, for keeping precious Ciarán alive. Otherwise, who knows how long it would’ve taken me to figure out the role Orla is to play.”
I pulled at Galahad’s reserves of magick. He stoppered our connection nearly immediately, but not before I managed to draw enough Skal to bolster my muscles, turn my spikes to steel, and lunge at Ferrin with outstretched claws.
He tried to fend me off with his sword, but I crushed it in my metal talons and forced him to the floor. We slid across its polished surface, coming to a stop near the low wall that looked out over the cloud-covered domain of the Frozen God.
The heavy steel of my clawed fist reflected the green of Ferrin’s fire, and I brought it swinging downwards.
He managed to roll beneath me, and my fist collided with the floor instead of his head. The black stone cracked beneath my hit, and gold light reflected in its broken surface as Caitria attacked me from behind.
At first, I thought she was wielding a flail like mine, but then the rope of the weapon extended, and the dart on the end licked my arm before retracting back towards Caitria on its swinging leash.
Ferrin came at me from the side, swinging dual blades. I tried to pull more Skal from Galahad, but he held firm on his end. I was forced to dance out of the way of Ferrin’s blades as Caitria unleashed her rope dart at me again.
I was ready this time, and I ignored the heat that seared against my metal hands as I grabbed the rope of Skal and twisted it around my wrists and fingers. Caitria lurched forward when I pulled, and she let her rope dart dissipate so she could better tackle me against the low wall of the window.
She pressed her forearm against my neck, and the mountainside wind grabbed at my hair through the window. Her free hand grabbed my wrist, and gold sparks flew as a current of electricity wracked my body.
Lights burst in my vision, and the Skal that made up my Nightmare form sizzled against the current of electric magick she sent coursing through me. Every muscle tensed against the shooting pain, and I screamed.
